(VHS),
ASIN 6301551990In our dreams
and fantasies we see ourselves as Supermen, equal parts jut-jaw-leap-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound
and Nietzsche. In the real world, despite our individual principles, decent
people like us will administer painful electroshocks on the command of
an authority figure, when we believe such actions will be for the greater
benefit of mankind. If you don't believe me, plug the name Stanley Milgram
into your search engine.

I
am not writing this to absolve you.

I imagine The
Incident, Martin Sheen's first film, made about a dollar, maybe
two, back in 1967, the year of peace and love. The film concerns the antics
of two thugs, Joe Ferrone and Artie Connors (Tony Musante and Martin Sheen,
in his big film debut). Ferrone and Conners muscle a bar owner into keeping
a pool table open and beat a man to death for only bringing eight dollars
to his mugging. With the eight bucks provided by the stylized slaying
of Eight Dollar Man, they decide to do some drugs and take a thrill ride
on the subway. Once on the subway, a leg, arm or knife continually blocks
one exit door, and the door to the next car won't open. God, a.k.a. the
police and conductor, just can't hear you.

Ferrone's and Connors'
subway antics expose a myriad of sexual and racial jealousies. Each character
earns their name in this thorny, humid drama, though I will use shorthand
here. You meet a black couple -- he of the "I'm Black and I'm Proud" camp
versus the seemingly milder, much weaker she.

The black couple sit
near an old, long-married couple. The wife in this couple still cherishes
pretensions of youth. One time-capsule worthy scene makes us believe totally
in her longing for her sexual youth. We see her husband on a bench in
the background with her stiletto-heeled legs right in front of us. "There
were couples at that party who had three children," she says.

"I went to a doctor
the other day. There's nothing wrong with me," he weakly retorts.

While Ferrone and
Connors don't know all the details we do, they prove experts at zeroing
in on the conflicts that can divide and shatter. Individually, we may
be Hercules standing up for the right thing. But in a group setting, in
order to avoid our own deaths, we will revert to the weaker side of our
nature.

Some, in their own
way try to stand up to the thugs, with deeply unsettling aftermaths. It
seems he who cries loudest gets the most sympathy, and nobody cares much
for heroes in the desperate attempt to forget the past. The film's terse
dialogue and evolving look thankfully help viewers forget the movie's
early neo-noir aspects, and settle on a far more casual and observant
approach. The Incident offers a brilliant visual example
of letting the film tell its own story. Every character, especially the
police and paramedics at the end, become much more memorable because they
seem so ordinary. So much like you and me.